My Mother’s Kitchen: Banana Nut Bread

We didn’t usually add the walnuts though, but at the time I was happy with that – maybe it was my taste buds or the quality of nuts back then, but raw plain nuts didn’t taste good – although I’d hedge a lot of why I like nuts now is I buy high quality, from places such as Trader Joe’s and Costco that have a high turn over of them but also I store my nuts tightly wrapped in the refrigerator or freezer. When I was a kid, well, nuts were not very affordable except around Christmas time and then they were often soft and soggy in texture…yuck. And worse were the nuts stored in a cupboard for many months and going beyond stale.

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 and spray a 9″x5″x3″ loaf baking pan with cooking spray.
Cream together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer. Add the eggs and beat well.
Whisk the dry ingredients together, add to the bowl in two parts, with the bananas between, till smooth. Stir the nuts in by hand.

Spread evenly into the prepared pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and put on a cooling rack. Let fully cool before slicing. Or not, if you have a hungry teenager and toddler wandering by…..